An Accra Magistrate Court has ordered state attorneys at the Office of the Attorney General handling the dockets of two suspects arraigned for the murder of the late New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region, JB Danquah-Adu to appear before her.
The presence of the state attorney is to explain the cause of delays in rounding up the committal process of the suspects, Daniel Asiedu, aka Sexy Don Don –phone dealer and Vincent Bosso aka Junior Agogo, phone repairer which will lead to a possible indictment.
A police prosecutor, DSP George Amega on August 15, 2018 told the court that the police were done with their investigation and a reviewed docket had been handed over to the Office of the Attorney General.
He therefore, prayed the court to adjourn the matter to allow the Attorney General to study the reviewed docket for the committal hearing.
The court presided over by Magistrate Arit Nsemoh subsequently, adjourned the matter to September 19, 2018 for the committal hearing to commence.
But there was no state attorney present at yesterday’s proceedings when the case was called. Asked where they were, DSP Amega told the court that they were still working on the dockets.
He could, however, not provide the court with names as to who the state attorney handling the case is.
Magistrate Nsemoh who was not impressed by the explanation given by the prosecutor reminded him about how the prosecution used to rely on delays in releasing the pathology test of the deceased as the main impediment to the case.
She said the pathology report had been released long ago and she therefore does not understand the further delays in completing the committal proceedings.
She therefore ordered the state attorney handling the case docket to appear before her on October 11, 2018 to explain the cause for the delay.
The state attorney is also to give the court timelines as to when he or she will complete the process to guide the Magistrate in adjourning the case.
“I want to see the prosecutor handling the case docket to give me timelines; weeks or months so that I can know what date to take. I cannot be adjourning one case like this”. Magistrate Nsemoh stressed.
Meanwhile, the magistrate has told the accused persons to call on their lawyer to be present in court at the next date.
She recalled the accused persons telling her that they have a lawyer but she has never seen any person in the court representing them.
She therefore told them to ask the lawyer to be present while the Office of the Attorney General rounds up the committal proceedings.
“You said you have a lawyer but I have never seen him in court. Tell him he needs to be around during the committal proceedings”, the Magistrate told the suspects.
Magistrate Nsemoh also urged the suspects to exercise patience as the Office of the AG reviews the case docket and undertake the committal proceedings, adding that “the wheel of justice grinds slowly”.
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